Cupcakes, Doughnuts & Love

Happy Mother's Day!  I haven't gone to sleep yet, so it still counts.  It's been a while since a crazy catch-up post and there's a lotta love here. The 2nd Avenue Deli spells it out in salmon where I took my Mom last year and she wanted to go back today, so love also means pastrami sandwiches and potato pancakes.

I also put some love into the 192 (yep, that's 16-dozen) strawberry lemonade cupcakes I made for the Vicious & Virtuous 2nd Annual Bake-Off Beat-Down to benefit Autism Speaks organized by CupcakeHussy.

This recipe by Annie's Eats was popular when I made 48 and this time the judges from SweeteryNYC, Paper Magazine and Dessert Buzz NYC awarded them "best unusual ingredient" for the edible flowers and....

Best in Show!  And I was very happy with my attire for the event, a special apron by Jessie Steele, so freakin' cute.

There were also edible flowers at a dinner for Cartier by Chef Sam Talbot: they topped yummy, little lemon soufflés.

I loved the day I had with wedding planner Kate Sullivan, who I've known since kindergarten and new friends event planner Tammy Golson and photographer Angela Gaspar: girly, event chat with jap chae, okonomiyaki, ramen and bibimbap.  Big thanks to Kerry from handmade Quade for bringing us together, can't wait for our next outing!

We also trekked out to The Brooklyn Lyceum's spring craft market and to the Smith Street Paper Source: "paper heaven!" sighed Kate.

I put my purchases to use for a congratulatory card

which went with a Lemon Infused Lemon Glazed Lemon Cake from Jon at Victory or Death in the Kitchen.  I added yet more strawberries since I'm on that kick these days and there was a yummy lemon syrup, which you brush on after baking and before pouring on the lemon glaze.

The Hester Street Fair opened yesterday and I met Angela and wore shorts for the first time this year.  The weather was so gorgeous I just wanted to stay outside all day.  Awesome coffee from Wonder City Coffee & Donut Bar.  I somehow resisted their donut holes with caramel sauce, but that will need to be remedied soon.

We saw adorable, little drawstring bags with felt appliqué by The Honey Pie Tree.

and had some spinach & ricotta and saffron & mozzarella arancini from Arancini Brothers...mmm...yes, more fried food in my life...bliss.

Sometime I have to go here when I'm on my way home so I can carefully buy a terrarium from Casa Helecho because aside from being beautiful I think echivaria and cacti are the only things I can keep alive, Mila excepted.

We snagged rose petal donuts at Doughnut Plant -- they're only made for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day -- wow, even MORE edible flowers!

And it was a great day just for lying around in the park.

But back to Mother's Day: how did I forget to take pictures of the gifts I picked up at the Spring Handmade Cavalcade from hycCreative and Wish By Felicity?  Too eager to get wrapping I guess.  Well, here's a pic from Felicity of a necklace similar to the one I bought my Mom, whose favorite color is blue.

[photo by Wish By Felicity]

Another perfect spring day: we went trolling through The Antiques Garage on 25th Street

and yes, over to the 2nd NYC Doughnut Plant location (hehe....more donuts in my life...)  This one is much bigger than the Lower East Side location, but not as large as the one I visited in the Myeongdong region of Seoul, South Korea.  Love these pillows on the wall on 23rd Street though.

Over in Madison Square Park I saw something that stopped me in my tracks: "Echo" by Jaume Plensa.

The artist says “Many times we talk and talk, but we are not sure if we are talking with our own words or repeating just messages that are in the air. My intention is to offer something so beautiful that people have an immediate reaction, so that they think, ‘What’s happening?’ And then maybe they can listen a little bit to themselves.”

This was my reaction to the piece exactly and I listened to myself quietly for a moment, then the sounds of the city came back and I looked around me at what's really important.  Love you, Mom, Dad & Emily.

48 Cupcakes Later

Last weekend I made 48 cupcakes and somehow still had frosting left over!

For the first 24, I saw mention of Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes on The Cupcake Blog

which led to a post from Michelle Falletti at It's the Little Things in Life

and to the recipe at Annie's Eats.

The frosting was by Annie and the cake adapted from a recipe by Williams-Sonoma.

I didn't have time to make the lemonade syrup, which was ok because once I snuck a taste I found that the little cakes were so moist already.

Then frosting, topping with fresh strawberries and some lemon sugar (just granulated sugar with lemon zest that I keep in the fridge for things just like this).

And then time to pack them all up in my handy new cupcake holder, which can transport (and display) 2 dozen cupcakes!

And took them to my friend Shawn's Chili-Cook-Off where they won the blue ribbon for Best Side Dish, yay!

The next day I wanted to use up the yummy frosting and speed things along a bit, so I used Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme Moist Deluxe mix to make 24 more cupcakes.

The mix was so, so pink!

So of course, the finished cakes were too.  And that was 48 cupcakes...and still frosting left over!  I took to eating it not-so-covertly with a spoon every once in a while right from the fridge and kept coming back for more...

And Mila was "helpful" as usual.  But what's not to love about leftover frosting?  Everyone could use a little more sweetness in their lives.

Happy 01-11-11

I love thinking about dates -- maybe a little too much.  Like having a lot of New Year's resolutions, I tend to keep a lot of calendars. Walking by A.I. Friedman, I saw this gorgeous calendar in the window from Snow & Graham Letterpress and fell in love with it.  

Last year I made much simpler calendars here and here, but it's a busy week and I actually love each and every month's picture from Snow & Graham -- and that doesn't always happen with all 12!  Then of course, there's the Blackberry.

And a printed calendar at work -- and a CAT CALENDAR! from my friend Rachael.

And a page-a-day from my friend Carlie.  I like all of them for different reasons.  

And a few more things made me happy on this historic day -- we won't have another one like it til 11-11-11.  Surprise: there were still leftovers from my arrangement for Koru Kate.  I heart this saijo persimmon Voluspa candle, which reminds me of a delicious persimmon bellini recently.  Also have a project in mind for these other 2 candles...

Got the February issue of Martha Stewart Living -- yummy and gorgeous and chock full of inspiring Valentine's ideas -- love it!

That inspired me to get a red velvet cupcake from Sweet Hoboken, mmm.

And I finally bought flowering branches!  I longingly eyed the quince in the flower market last March so I was surprised to see it in the market today.  The salesman said it would continue blooming so it'll be nice to see what happens.

Single Send-Off for Koru Kate

I've known Koru Kate since kindergarten and we went to our first wedding seminar together 11 years ago to hear Colin Cowie speak. Now we're both event planners and she's getting married next weekend!

I brought her a flower arrangement and used white chrysanthemums and white roses with just a touch of a yellow hue and pink edges on some of the petals -- they looked sunny, which reminded me of Kate!

I've had a few questions about flower care & arranging, so here are a few easy tips. When I made my amaryllis arrangements I realized it was much better to trim and prepare all the stems first, then putting them into the container.

1st) Choose a container, fill with a few cups of water and mix in 1 packet of floral food until it dissolves.

2nd) Take off all rose thorns (careful!) and any leaves that will be below the water line so the water stays as clean as possible.  

3rd) Trim the chrysanthemums on an angle so the ends don't sit flat on the bottom of the container.  The stems will have blooms of varying lengths, so take off any that'll be too short to reach over the top of your chosen container.

4th) Cut the roses, again on an angle, while they're under water to prevent an air bubble from forming in the stem -- couldn't get a pic of this with just 2 hands!  Side note, at some point flipping channels I saw Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond with flowers of his own.

5th) Put the cut roses immediately into your prepared container: I made a ring around the edge and put one in the center.  Any stems in the center can be higher than the ones on the edge so the arrangement will have a nice dome shape instead of being flat.

6th) Fill in with chrysanthemums, poking them in around the roses, and even placing them under the rose heads to lift them up.

6th) And keep adding roses and chrysanthemums until you're happy with how the arrangement is filled out: here's a top view.

There were even a few chrysanthemums left over -- love that!  I also like Expendable Edibles: gourmet recipes from chefs and foodies using leftovers, and Craft Leftovers: creative ideas for using up your crafty stash.  So, I put some flowers in the bedroom.

And bathroom.

The best thing about these shears is that they can come apart to dry out completely.

Also picked up some mini cupcakes from Sweet Hoboken: vanilla, chocolate, coconut, red velvet, banana and carrot -- all yum!

And celebrated Kate's last few days of single-dom!  Congratulations, Kate -- can't wait for your beautiful wedding!